BENGALURU- Gold held steady on Wednesday as investors keenly awaited the outcome of a tightly contested US presidential race.
Spot gold held its ground at $2,745.42 per ounce. Bullion hit a record high of $2,790.15 last Thursday.
US gold futures edged 0.2 percent higher to $2,754.10.
Republican Donald Trump won 14 states in Tuesday’s US presidential election while Democrat Kamala Harris captured four states and Washington, DC Edison Research projected, but critical battleground states were unlikely to be called for hours or even days.
It’s 95 percent about the US election this week, with a 5 percent splash of the Federal Reserve to add a touch of spice, said Kyle Rodda, financial market analyst at Capital.com.
Bitcoin surged to a record high in Asian trade as investors leaned towards Donald Trump winning the US presidential election.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency rose 7 percent to $75,060, topping March’s peak, with the prospect of Trump’s return to the White House seen ushering in a softer line on cryptocurrency regulation.
Republican Trump won 15 states while Democrat Kamala Harris captured seven states and Washington, D.C., Edison Research projected, and though the race remained too early to call financial markets began moving in the Asia session to price a victory for the former president.
Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at cryptocurrency asset manager Astronaut Capital, said markets expected a change in attitude at the US Securities and Exchange Commission to remove a choke point for crypto innovation and speculation.
“(A) Democrat win would have felt like a short term nail in the coffin,” he said. “Probably not the case long term but the market is placing high importance on it.”
Smaller cryptocurrency ether also jumped 7.5 percent but at $2,593 remained well below its 2021 high of $4,867.
“Gold is a part of the Trump trade and in the long term ought to benefit from a Trump victory, mostly due to the impacts of huge deficit spending but also because of potentially more uncertain US foreign policy,” said Rodda.